New study on development co-benefits of climate action in Mexico

 blog  Comments Off on New study on development co-benefits of climate action in Mexico
Feb 062020
 

We are very excited to announce that our report Crunching Numbers: Quantifying the sustainable development co-benefits of Mexico’s climate commitments has been published. This study quantifies – and offers concrete evidence of – the co-benefits that can be obtained by implementing the climate agenda in coordination with the sustainable development agenda in Mexico. It measures six priority co-benefits resulting from the implementation of three current and two potential Mexican NDC commitments.

The selected climate commitments include targets for renewables, EVs, industrial efficiency, wastewater, and forests. The selected development benefits are: Livelihoods and community resilience; public health; food security; water resources quality; employment; and energy security.

Raising climate ambition through long-term energy sector plans and sound participatory processes

 academic article/report  Comments Off on Raising climate ambition through long-term energy sector plans and sound participatory processes
Dec 032018
 

Concept idea by SD Strategies (Alexander Ochs, Ieva Indriunaite) and the Ministry of Energy (Fiona Bello Smith), Chile, for the NDC Support Cluster of the German Ministry of the Environment

Introduction: The approach proposes that long-term climate-compatible sectoral strategies and action plans should be designed and implemented to achieve mitigation and adaptation goals in line with both the objectives of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Paris Agreement as well as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Agenda 2030. Beyond their immediate impact in the short- and mid-term, these climate-compatible sectoral policy instruments can serve as a vehicle for increasing climate ambition over time. While the NDC provides a broader goal and sectoral or economy wide activities, the design of specific policies and measures, including programmes and individual projects, is required to put the high-level commitments into practice. (…)

Conclusion/next steps: The development of a long-term climate-compatible energy sector plan can deliver wide-ranging benefits to support NDC implementation. It can mobilise the broader society behind climate action, providing a strong mandate for the government to maintain a coherent climate-compatible approach in its short-term policy planning and laying the ground work for increased climate ambition over time. To close the ambition raising policy formulation cycle, the key next step is to move beyond the field of energy. Other sectors should take over the baton, building on the momentum created to develop their own long-term NDC-compatible strategies through participatory policy making. The forthcoming NDC review process can act as a new window of opportunity in taking the approach to other sectors. The goal is to support the emergence of new “champion” sectors – next to or even in parallel to the early pioneers. With a bar set high, where several sectors compete, the planet wins.

Please find the full paper here: [NDC Cluster]

Local Ownership and Engagement for NDC Implementation

 academic article/report  Comments Off on Local Ownership and Engagement for NDC Implementation
Dec 032018
 

Concept idea by SD Strategies (Alexander Ochs, Ieva Indriunaite) and the Ministry of Energy (Esther Wangombe), Kenya, for the NDC Support Cluster of the German Ministry of the Environment

Introduction: The approach proposes a holistic multi-level process for the development of an NDC action plan, which strengthens local-level engagement to connect high-level policy commitments and concrete project implementation. The underlying aim of the local ownership and engagement approach is to provide a way for incorporating community concerns, knowledge, expertise and capacity into the national climate policy formulation and implementation processes (…)

Conclusion/next steps: There is a growing recognition that locally-driven participatory approaches can strengthen the design of climate policy and measures as well as their implementation. A policy, action plan or a project that is designed through the collaboration at all levels of government and that takes the perspectives, knowledge and capacities from local communities into consideration during the formulation stage is more likely to succeed and have a higher impact than traditional approaches that know only one way: top-down. The local ownership and engagement approach outlined in this concept paper offers a promising way towards achieving this goal. Its application in a particular country needs to be well thought through and adjusted to the local circumstances and capacities. It is important to ensure that lessons from pioneer countries such as Kenya are captured and fed back into the global pool of knowledge.

Please find the full paper here: [NDC Cluster]

What to Expect: COP22 Climate Summit in Marrakech

 online interview  Comments Off on What to Expect: COP22 Climate Summit in Marrakech
Nov 082016
 

desmog-logo

By Brooke Cary, Desmog, find full article [here].

Today, world leaders and climate negotiators are reconvening in Marrakech, Morocco, less than a year after they hammered out the Paris Agreement to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions through the United Nations process. Over the next two weeks, they will work out the logistics of their climate goals at the 22nd Conference of the Parties (COP22).  (…)

Negotiators at COP22 will need to strike a delicate balance. You want to be transparent and you want to keep countries accountable for what they are suggesting,” Alexander Ochs, Senior Director of Climate and Energy at Worldwatch Institute, said. “On the other hand, it’s important to keep it voluntary.” (…)

The burning questions are: Who will pay how much — and where will the funding go first? It will have to be seen how the funds are acquired, who pays what, what obligations are there for countries to receive it. That’s the overarching issue,” Ochs said.

Reaching the Paris Agreement’s ambitious target of 1.5°C warming — or even staying below 2°C — will require nations to up their emissions reduction targets far beyond what they have already committed to. COP21 in Paris was one, if not the most important and definitely the most successful climate conference that we’ve had historically,” Ochs said. But, “we can’t just rest with past successes which exist on paper, but have not yet been implemented.” (…)